Fencing Suppliers Gravesend Kent

Approximate Population: 56,000

Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of England. It still retains today a strong link with the river. The opening of the Eurostar railway station at Ebbsfleet, and the fact that it lies with the Thames Gateway, add to the town’s importance.

The town was recorded as Gravesham in the Domesday Book in 1086 as belonging to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux: the name probably derived from “graaf-ham”: the home of the Reeve, or Bailiff, of the Lord of the Manor. Another theory suggests that the name Gravesham may be a corruption of the words grafs-ham – a place “at the end of the grove”. The Domesday spelling is the only historical record; all other spellings – in the later (c1100) Domesday Monarchorum and in Textus Roffensis the town is Gravesend/Gravesende. Gravesham has however been adopted for the 1974 Borough title.

Stone Age implements have been found in the area; as has the evidence of an Iron Age settlement at nearby Springhead. Extensive Roman remains have been found nearby, at Vagniacae (Springhead); and Gravesend lies immediately to the north of their road connecting London with the Kent coast – now called Watling Street. The Domesday Book recorded mills hythes and fisheries here.

In the Fort Gardens is Milton Chantry, Gravesend’s earliest existing building of the late 13th century. It was refounded about 1321 on the site of a hospital founded in 1189. At the time it was supported by lands in Essex.

Gravesend has one of the oldest surviving markets in the country, its earliest charter dating from 1268. Town status was granted to the two parishes of Gravesend and Milton, the Charter of Incorporation being received in that year. The first Mayor of Gravesend was elected in that year, although the first Town Hall was in place by 1573: it was replaced in 1764. A new frontage was built in 1836. Although its use as a Town Hall came to an end in 1968, when the new Civic Centre was opened, it continued in use as the Magistrates’ Courts. At present (2004) it is disused, and discussions are being held with a view to its future.

Fencing Suppliers Gravesend Kent